The present invention relates to back supports and, more particularly, to a back support such as a sacrolumbar support adapted to be worn about a person's waist.
A commonly prescribed remedy for periodic or chronic backache is the use of a support adapted to be worn about a person's waist to alleviate the strain on the back and, in particular, on the sacrolumbar region of the back. However, none of the known back supports have been found to be totally satisfactory.
More particularly, the human back is not only concavely curved in the sacrolumbar region, but requires different levels of support (i.e., firmness) in different areas. The conventional back support having a flat surface to be pressed against the wearer's back or even a single radius of curvature therein fails to provide a desirably high level of conforming contact between the surface of the back support and the back of the wearer. The conventional low level of conforming contact frequently results in the back support riding up or down (i.e., becoming displaced) from its proper position on the wearer's back, with resultant discomfort and loss of therapeutic effect. Further, the conventional back support does not provide differing levels of support to different areas along the longitudinal axis of the sacrolumbar region so that each area receives the most therapeutic level of support for that particular area. The concave shape of the human lumbar vertebrae (L-1 through L-5) requires more support than the surrounding waist area.
Conventional back supports which wrap around the wearer's waist not only fail to provide desirable support for the waist, but are uncomfortable as well. To a large degree this results from the fact that waists differ in height (some people having short or narrow waists while others have long or wide waists), and vary in dimension depending on the wearer's position (i.e., whether the wearer is standing, sitting or lying down). This is especially noticeable when the wearer is lying on his side and the side of the back support either does not provide sufficient support for the wearer's back because the waist portion of the back support does not fully extend between the wearer's side and the mattress as necessary .to provide support for the spine or is too bulky in the region between the wearer's side and the mattress so that the spine is displaced from the desirable plane parallel to the mattress.
Back problems are particularly common in pregnant women and people of either sex who have large protruding abdomens, the support of which places a strain on the sacrolumbar portion of the back. Yet the conventional back supports which wrap around a person's abdomen are not only uncomfortable for the person with the protruding abdomen to wear, but may be unhealthy as well due to the pressure applied to the protruding abdomen. Additionaly, the conventional back support does not provide both a desirable support of the protruding abdomen from below and a desirable stabilization of the protruding abdomen which keeps it properly positioned rather than flopping from side to side as the wearer turns.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a back support which is adapted to closely conform to the wearer's sacrolumbar region and provide the varying levels of firmness desirable for each respective area thereof.
Another object is to provide such a back support having side portions which are easily modifiable by the wearer to provide a desired bulkiness for the particular wearer and the particular position of the wearer at given time.
A further object is to provide a back support which is not only useful to and comfortable for wearers having protruding abdomens (such as pregnant women) but also provides support and stabilization for the protruding abdomen.